


Mediation Through Images and Signs Without Grounding

by zenzop



Category: The Centricide (Webseries)
Genre: (Ancom/anqueer is only a mentioned relationship but they are together), Conversations, Domestic, Established Relationship, Existential Dread, I insist on these two working out their shit, I mean as stable as you can be after reading Fisher and Baudrillard, Other, Qi's not even close to good representation, Tagging this as "canon nonbinary character" feels so cheap like qi's here to be a walking stereotype, Which is still shakey but it's not murdering each other, being stable for once
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:15:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27581228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zenzop/pseuds/zenzop
Summary: "We are still in the same boat: no society knows how to mourn the real, power, the social itself, which is implicated in the same loss. And it is through an artificial revitalization of all this that we try to escape this fact. This situation will no doubt end up giving rise to socialism. Through an unforeseen turn of events and via an irony that is no longer that of history, it is from the death of the social that socialism will emerge, as it is from the death of God that religions emerge. A twisted advent, a perverse event, an unintelligible reversion to the logic of reason. As is the fact that power is in essence no longer present except to conceal that there is no more power." (Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation)Thinking about Baudrillard and Fred Hampton. If you read through this, you are a strange person.
Relationships: Anarcho-Communism/Communism (Centricide), Anarcho-Communist/Anarcho-Queer (Centricide)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 36





	Mediation Through Images and Signs Without Grounding

**Author's Note:**

> Are we gonna publish my notes on communism? Maybe. I dunno. If there’s one thing being forced to read Socrates has taught me, it’s that philosophy should just be fanfiction.
> 
> Also, I'm sorry that Ancom isn't a post-leftist in this. I read post-leftist critiques but I don't necessarily agree with a lot of them so I don't think I can write it adequately. I’m a disappointing regular communist, I know, very vanilla of me. I just like Marx and an occasional read-through of Imperialism by Lenin, with some nice anarchist texts thrown in. 
> 
> Anyways, Bernard is a dumb name for Ancom, qi's not a socdem, let's go with - David Goldman, or something, because David Graeber and Emma Goldman are actually cool. Errico Goldman, maybe. If we need to be obscure about it - David Sperry?

**(TW//Marijuana usage, weirdly nothing else I can think of)**

It was after everything. It was over, and qi was back, and they had moved into an apartment together. And it was nice. And the discussions were good. And they were recovering. What they did with their lives was theirs again, and they were doing things - setting up community gardens and helping people unionize, break away from their bosses. Trying to build things again.

And qi was on his bed, and they both somehow found a way to fix things. And they were both okay with that.

And the conversation, which never seemed to stop in this household, changed subject.

"Alright, but - what does being a communist mean in the context of America?" Qi was smoking a joint again, despite being inside the house, something Commie reminded himself he needed to discuss with qim.

"What do you mean?" He responded.

"I mean, what does it mean to be living as a communist under a capitalist structure. What does it mean to be a communist in a society that is not exactly well-prepared to move on from capitalism," Qi expanded, "next stage of materialism and all that, yeah, but we're not exactly on the brink of a revolution right now."

"Well, we have some talking points in the mainstream. Discussions about prisons - more people openly opposing capitalism," He responded, "That has to mean something."

"Well, yeah, talking points are being circulated, that's all well and good, but this is also the first time prison abolition has had the opportunity to be co-opted by capitalism," Ancom hissed, bit of distaste in qir voice, flicking a bit of ashes onto Commie’s bed, "I've already seen it - 'replace prisons with psych wards,' like the solution all along was imprisoning people with good intention behind it, without changing the reality of prison. All it does is reveal the psych ward as a carceral institution, no acknowledgement of the abuse that occurs within them."

He paused a moment, put his book down. Thought about it.

"I don't see an end to prison any time soon," He mused, "I can't see the prison being abolished without the abolition of capitalism. I don't really know the practicality of abolishing prisons in a revolution. Even the anarchists in Spain had prisons. It's - something we work towards."

"I feel like I could argue there's a difference between asking the state to release sex workers and drug addicts and people forced to steal things and imprisoning fascists during a revolution," Qi remarked, "Revolutionaries killing fascists and cops imprisoning homeless people isn't really comparable, and I refuse to listen to criticism about them from the person infamous for his defence of Gulags."

"I'm just saying, capitalists won't give up the labour force they get from prisons, we don't have the ability to throw them away during a revolution entirely, we can work on decarceration after capitalism is gone."

“We should work on decarceration immediately,” Qi huffed, “Drug addicts aren’t helped at all by prisons, and the prison is an institution which needs immediate abolition.”

“Would you suggest that we just kill every dissenter, then? Is that more ethical? Aren’t revolutions, in some way, innately authoritarian, requiring of authoritarianism?”

Ancom threw qis hands up.

“I’m just worried about the prison becoming a self-perpetuating hierarchy, you know how I am,” Qi continued, “I’m not opposed to shooting people who abuse their position of power, that’s sort of my whole deal. And anarchists have a historical tendency to refuse positions of power. We sort things out once the battlefield is cleared - if your statist inclinations don’t screw us over again. In the meantime, we find solutions that benefit the community as a community.”

“I never said that I would advocate for a state to exist past the point of necessity,” Commie argued, “There is no place for a state in a free world, not the organ of domination of one class over another, we can both agree on that. I never advocated for the state to be a permanent institution.”

“But you favour centralized and statist solutions to problems,” Qi shot back, “I don’t very much like that. Too much opportunity for the will of those in need to be ignored. Too much opportunity for the imposition of yourself onto others, instead of finding genuine, community-oriented solutions.”

“It’s - difficult to imagine people being fine with that.”

“Capitalism makes it difficult to imagine a life outside of itself, doesn’t mean it’s not worth pursuing. I know we’ve both read Fisher.”

“Fisher also claims decentralization helps perpetuate capitalism.”

“He claims corporate decentralization helps perpetuate capitalism, that’s different. I’m saying that by promoting centralization, you only work to distance yourself from the living situation of those below. Centralization leads to a lack of direct knowledge on those you serve and when people are expected to rely on a centralized authority to solve their issues, this can only lead to terrible responses to crises.Those without a connection to the material interests of the working class who are instead only interested in leading them towards liberty can only recreate capitalist class relations with a coat of red paint over it.”

Commie pauses, getting up from his armchair.

“You’ve gotten better at rhetoric since your post-left phase,” he says, with his eyes softening a bit, a genuine smile on his face.

“And I’ll drag you kicking and screaming towards an anarcho-communist future if I have to,” qi responds, crossing qis legs to sit more comfortably on Tankie’s bed, before he walks over to puts a hand into the curls of qis hair.

“You’re still an ineffective counter-revolutionary liberal,” He said, leaning down to press his lips into qis forehead.

“And you’re an insurrectionary social democrat,” qi replied, smiling.

He hummed quietly to himself, slowly exhaling. And he jutted up, all quite suddenly, excitedly.

“I could argue that communism will require some internal measures of control until higher communism can be achieved, yes? Even if it won’t be centralized. Transitionary periods and all that.”

“That’s not - “

“I’m trying to find a place for myself in your revolution, I don’t make sense otherwise.”

Qi smiled.

“I’m proud of you for trying.”

"So could I argue something?"

"You can try."

He smiled again, bit too proud of whatever argument was stewing in his head

“Could I present the idea that a movement away from capitalism is creating a new type of authority, which isn’t necessarily authoritarian in the same way capitalism is? And although this authority will be recallable and won’t occupy a position in society wherein they will be able to subjugate others to their authority, but spontaneous hierarchies will emerge based on genuine merit and skill -”

“Don’t tell me this is a fucking Chomsky argument.”

“No, no, I’m saying this is the position I will be able to occupy in a post-capitalist society when we have moved past the need for bureaucracy and states.”

Qi paused.

“Fuck, maybe you’re the one here destined to become a fucking postie.”

“What?” he laughed.

“You’re so fucking abstract,” qi laughed, “No, fucking dammit, I’m going to tell you to read Bakunin, you’re gonna be the one going off on shit and I’m going to be the one telling you to read theory from now on. We’re switching spots.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“‘Hi, my name is Commie, and I sucked Stalin’s cock at least three times when I was living in the Soviet Union -”

“This is unfair, there is precedent in my argument from Bordiga -”

“‘My name is Statist Socialism, and I think that Socialism in One Country is a tenable plan for building a communist society. What do you mean ‘inevitable collapse?’’”

“I never rejected internationalism, it’s just that you can’t just export revolution in a suitcase -”

“Здравствуйте, my program of recruitment is telling everyone that revolution is authoritarian and then trying to sell them on a secret police as part of the completely libertarian worker’s state -”

He cut qim off.

“Hello, my name is Ancom, and I haven’t set up a society that has lasted for more than two years and only know how to spout CIA propaganda about functional socialist states.”

He tried very hard to replicate an American accent.

“Weak blow, you’re getting repetitive.”

He sat down on his bed, a bit too quickly, throwing qim a bit off of qir balance as they tried to think of a genuine response.

“So, what you’re saying is, there will still be authoritarianism within a communist society because of hierarchies of knowledge? Because, I'm sorry, I don't know if I can subscribe to that.”

“No, I’m saying that every society has some sort of organs of control. Religion and rationality and ritual and whatnot. What I’m predicting is there will be new types of authority,” He explained, “It sounds absurd, but think of how difficult it would be to explain nationalism and the authoritarianism of fascism to a feudalist. It would be incomprehensible. Fascism is authoritarianism specific to capitalism and, no matter what it does, it cannot regress to a feudal state. Capitalism cannot retreat into monarchism. That’s why the far right of the political compass is fascism and not an absolute monarch. Because you cannot escape the global domination of the capitalist commodity form through regress. We are all going forward and we cannot go back. We can only escape this economic system through a complete smashing of the old one.”

“And your point with this is?”

“Society can never be fully libertarian and the libertarianism communism offers is distinctively coming after the full suppression of the bourgeois class, because we can’t have liberty without a new form of authority. The essence of any social body has coercive authority, it extends to any form of organization. “Liberty” is, just as equality is, an untenable and abstract goal, and our focus should instead be on changing material conditions to guarantee these things, instead of focusing on semantics, as our relationship to the infrastructure of society and how property is owned and how goods are distributed should be our focus and groundwork.”

“Well, one only recognizes their freedom through social engagement, the freedom that comes with the material freedom of housing and food security, the freedom that comes from social acceptance, the freedom to develop yourself - that’s all basic Bakunin.”

“Yes, and what I’m saying is, we both only exist as the far-left of the economic system of capitalism,” “We only make sense as members of the current system. If we lived in feudal society, we would be incoherent. If we lived in a communist society, our suggestions would be nonsensical, as higher-phase communism will look foreign to us, and running through the streets asking to set up a state to the advantage of the working class would be mad in a society with no classes whatsoever. We exist as byproducts of our current state of affairs, we are the natural outgrowth of the current economic order. We are reflections of the dominant mode of production.”

“Have you been looking over my notes on anarchism as a negative program?”

“No, I’m saying communism has to act as a rejection of liberalism.”

“‘Anarchism has to act as a negation of the current system,’” Qi quoted, “Anarchism comprised of pure negativity, no basis in what comes next, but instead on the complete destruction of this system.”

“I’m just interested in seeing how power will coalesce post-commodity form.”

“Do you think this will fall along race or gender lines?”

“I hope not.”

They scrunched their face a bit.

"That feels kind of dumb and speculative and frivolous."

"It was just speculation - I'm not sure. It's just easy to fall into whiggism. I don't like being that subjective. The problem with capitalism is the contradictions in it, the vapidness of its promises, how antithetical it is to prolonged existence on this planet, how alienating it is - not the lack of freedoms."

Qi laid back on his bed, throwing qir hands above qis head.

“Y’know, I wonder how ‘revolutionary’ either of us can be, then?” Qi was staring at the patterns in the ceiling.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, are we just encoded within this system?” Ancom took another drag of their joint, “Are we working towards our own obsolescence and the movement into a world we can’t genuinely understand, and are we deeply interconnected with the systems of capital labour? We exist as critiques and negations of capitalism, we exist as revolutionaries. Uh - Sergey Nechayev tapped into it, with the Russian nihilist movement.”

The fact that qi could say all of that before exhaling should tell you something about the state of their lungs.

“Alright, and?”

“And we’re also part of the spectacle. We’re commodities by this point,” Qi mused, staring off into nowhere, qir hands sort of flailing around, “Our aesthetic is sold on things. We’re signs, removed from our original intent. We’re a part of the simulacrum. You exist to replicate an old, dead regime. Half your lines are hardly based in Lenin’s original theories at all. It’s sign value without grounding all the way down.”

“That’s because the writer of the series this is based on wrote fanfiction about memes and didn’t actually bother to understand Marxist theory,” He said, a bit of glaring directed at the smaller person lying on his bed, “That’s hardly my fault.”

“And now this author is responding to that in the form of fanfiction,” "It's almost interesting - if they wrote actual fanfiction of us, it would almost just be another layer of removal from the original form. Even this is that, arguably. An attempt to return to the real through another layer of removal. If we want to actually achieve communism -"

"We would have to lose our symbolic value."

"What would that do to us?"

He thought about it. Shuddered a bit.

"I have no clue."

“Well, what happened to primitive communism? Or Rome-style dictatorships?”

He paused again.

“I have no clue.”

Beat. Beat.

"Maybe we just get a nice cottage together, somewhere in Moscow."

"Always has to be Russia with you," qi snapped back, no malice in qir voice.

Qi continued.

"The author of this fanfiction's interpretation of us wouldn't very much make sense if they were raised in a fully communist society. Their discussion about prisons earlier would hardly make sense. Why debate a structure that was made obsolete by the material conditions of the time? Why discuss its necessity?"

"And they understand that by linking their identity to us and in their attempt to emulate our likeness in their fanfiction, they prolong all of this in their head a bit."

The author felt like they were staring holes in their own skull at this point, and decided to not talk about themselves in this fanfiction again.

They all paused.

"You know, it's weird."

He looked down at them, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"What is?"

"Sometimes this feels like the thing that happens before the end of the world as we know it. The thing that comes before massive change. Something is going to happen and we're sitting in the apartment the author made for us in their head. Sectioned off into our own reality in the hyperreal. Somewhere where things are nice. And the world just gets increasingly confusing and inescapable."

He looked at them, laid back and let them crawl over to his chest, grab his hand, and watched the world fold inwardly. What really had to make sense anymore? It didn’t, not right now, not in this space.

This was not somewhere real. The difference between the two of them was a costume change. They were spectres, haints of the world about to come, trapped within what would hopefully be the death throes of the era of capital, and they both existed, ideally, as just that: Opposition to the phantasms of their era, to the current symbols of power, as analyses of how it flowed and shaped itself, what authority meant within capitalism.

And a question rang through his head again; What did it mean to be a communist in the current era of capitalism, caught as the performers within the spectacle and as its most vehement opponents. The personifications of lived experiences turned into mere representations.

He wondered about the morality of it all often - allowing others to suffer versus the bloody mess of taking it into your own hands. This was an era where, regardless of who you were, everyone was made out to be complicit in some crime somewhere, some act of dehumanization. Wanting to put an end to it meant more violence, and he thought about the people who hated him for it. He used to say comfort was clouding their minds, the material comfort provided by imperialism and state violence, but he moreso looked around to see people were tired more than anything else. This system made everyone know they were bad people for participating in it, and that knowledge alone was enough to wear the best of people thin.

A part of his mind rang off something about flunkeyism, but it wouldn't give him anything to repeat his train of thoughts about that, something cut off by the small coos of the person lying on their chest.

"Do you wanna hear about how a focus on optics on the left only contributes to Debord's concept of spectacle?"

And he smiled, pushing the thoughts he found unshareable at this moment aside.

"Sure."

"What time is it?"

And he looked at the clock beside his bed, one that looks however you would like to see it, depending on your experience with clocks, and read it off.

"6:43."

And they jumped onto their feet.

"Cool, I'm gonna have to get ready. Anqueer is coming over. You can hear about it if you're willing to watch me change."

He laughed a bit.

"Yes, of course I am," He muttered, "Would you want me to leave you two or are you -"

"Just having dinner and watching a movie," they responded, "Smoking, maybe. Join if you like."

"Maybe I will."

And the conservation, again, changed subject.

**Author's Note:**

> And qi managed to talk qir way into being a postie by the end of the fanfiction, lovely, not gonna question that. 
> 
> Anyways, poly Ancom, accepting Tankie because everyone's finally worked out their shit now that no one is forcing them to live with their landlord and a literal Nazi. Not everything's gotta be dramatique. Imagine that, a proper relationship with good boundaries and good communication. It's almost out of character. 
> 
> I'm gonna write a fic responding to y'all fuckers who wrote incredibly dramatic fics deviating from the original canon to fix the leftist's relationship but instead of being dramatic it's just Ancom sitting down and saying "Hey, 90% of the fighting in this house would be fixed if both of us just found a new place, we can keep doing this shit of killing the liberals but like if we just moved down the block or something or moved in with the anarchists or with the communists or something I think that might be good for us" and Tankie just says "Yeah, that's probably for the best" and leaves Nazi stealing Ancap's bagels except he just throws them out now because bagels were originally created by Jews.
> 
> Anyways, I'm gonna go escape capitalism, you want anything?


End file.
